H – A portrait.

I sometimes struggle with this lens, as it doesn’t have the coatings of modern lenses and it is susceptible to flare. Physically it’s large too. And correct focus is notoriously difficult to achieve at f/1.4, because of the extremely thin depth of field (witness the focus here is on the near eye; by the time we get to the second eye, we are already out of focus).

But for portraits, I can’t think of a more appropriate lens in this focal range.

I should really do a Lens Report on this lens, as I’m often asked about it. But I haven’t been motivated to because the qualities of the 75 Summilux that I most value are not easily appreciated via test charts. Ideally, it’s best to just view images taken with it (however, when I wrote my report on the Leica 75mm Summarit f/2.5, I did include some comparison crops between the two lenses).

If you want to see more examples of portraiture with the Leica 75mm Summilux, please see here, here, and here.

Thanks Bishop, but don’t worry… the 75mm Summarit is, in many ways, more capable than the 75 ‘lux. If you don’t “need” f/1.4, the 75 Summarit is just about the perfect 75mm lens for image quality (and portability).